Jonathan - how is he doing?

Jonathan is going to be 4 years old in less than two months. How did that happen? He is growing up way too fast! In the picture above, you may notice that he is well protected with all of his weapons! (a knife on one side of his belt, a handgun on the other side, and his rifle stuck down the back of his pants) It's pretty common to find Jonathan walking around the house just like this!

Jonathan is doing well with his preschool lessons. He loves every minute of the time we spend doing his school. His only complaint is that it doesn't last long enough. He surprises me with his interest and his ability to listen intently. Because he's always been so rough and tumble, I suppose I didn't expect him to be studious as well. He is mostly sweet with his sister, but sometimes gets a little too rough. He is learning self control. (aren't we all?)

He has strange sleep patterns at night - which is why - (I am convinced) that he still naps each day. We thought we had gotten him out of his habit of coming downstairs and sleeping on the couch, and then he started it up again. We worked on him again with it, and just found out the other day, that he's *probably* still doing it sometimes. Aaron told us that when he got up the other night to go to the bathroom and get a drink of water, that Jonathan wasn't in his bed. So, we are thinking that he's still coming downstairs sometimes ... and then going back up to bed before everyone else gets up. I am going to have to start taping a baby monitor to him just to keep track of him.

I love this boy so much. He has the deepest, darkest most puppy doggish eyes and his smile warms me from head to toe. I can't get enough of his hugs.

On a side note ... he started Awana Cubbies and thinks it's AWESOME! But he still wants to wear his Puggles shirt everyday.

We are officially ...

under contract for this house:

We are so excited! We have been looking at houses since June, and have experienced some roadblocks along the way ... but are thankful that it led us to this house! We didn't intend or expect to buy a new construction home, but are very excited to be the first ones to live in this house.

This is the dining room with a back door that leads to a large partially covered deck.

This is the Living Room.

I am very excited to say that we are going to have a gas line run to the kitchen so that we can have a gas range. Now that I've had a gas range for the past year and a half - I can't imagine having anything else!

This is a view of the kitchen from the stairs.

This is the master bedroom - which has a door that also leads to the back deck!

The house also has 4 large rooms upstairs. Rosalie will have her own room. The boys will share the large bonus room. Rich will use one of the rooms for an office, and the extra room will be used as our school room.

When we moved here 7 1/2 years ago, we thought that we were just passing through and that we would soon move on to another area. I guess we were wrong. Perhaps buying a house means that we are putting down roots.

I am so thankful to have a husband who works so hard to provide for us. He and I never dreamed that we would be a position to buy a house so soon after he completed his PhD. I am thankful that he is a saver and not a spender. I am thankful that he always has the best interest of our family as his #1 priority.

All glory to God for His abundant blessings!

Rosalie the superhero

In all fairness, we don't have many girly toys around this house. You might be able to imagine why that is. It is very common to find Rosalie running through the house holding a light saber, a rifle, or trying to dress up like batman.
This particular day she wanted to be Bibleman. So, she brought me all the gear, so that I could help her put it on.
I personally think that she is at a great advantage. It's no secret that (I think) toys *meant for boys* are just more fun!
So ... what is your opinion?
Which is better? *meant for girls* toys or *meant for boys* toys?

Big day today!

I still don't have any pictures to share but I do have a few words to share. First - we start our Awana year tonight - and we are super excited about it. This is a big year for the boys! This is a promotion year for everyone! Jonathan is moving up to Cubbies, Aaron moves up to Sparks, and Martin is moving up to Truth & Training! They are all very excited - but they are all quite nervous too. They are nervous because none of them know fully what to expect. The unknown is causing them a little anxiety.

Second - we have run into a little roadblock in our home buying journey, and we are hoping that it will work itself out.

School is going well for us. I am so encouraged at just how well it is going. It always takes me 3-4 weeks to figure out how to run our school day in a way that uses our time the most efficiently. We are in week 3 right now and have figured out several things already that will make our days run smoothly. I always work out a very detailed schedule before we start, but almost always that schedule gets thrown out the window by week 3. Sure enough that schedule has already been thrown out.

Our daily chore system is working out better than I had dreamed, and our family quiet/Bible times have also been a blessing to me! The children have really embraced both well and having the family quiet time really helps to calm everyone down and focus our day.

Random and not so random thoughts

We just came off of a busy and fun weekend. (and I didn't take a single picture ... what was I thinking?) It was a whirlwind of events. I have so many thoughts racing through my mind, so I thought I'd put some of them here.

1. My mom came on Thursday. Oh, how I love it when my mom comes to visit. I asked her to come for two reasons. First, I wanted her to see the house that we have been *trying* to buy. Second, I wanted her to stay with the children, so that Rich and I could go to dinner with our good friends, the Huffman's. (kill 2 birds with 1 stone!)

2. Rich and I went out to dinner with the Danny and Cindy Huffman. It was a wonderful night of good food and even better fellowship! We are so thankful for them and their influence in our lives. AND we were able to do it while my mom was with my children. EVEN BETTER! I didn't have to worry the whole evening!

3. On Friday morning, we took my mom to see the house we made an offer on (in early July - it's a short sale situation, so we have been patiently waiting). We had a great time looking at it again and were able to show it to the children as well.

4. Friday evening we got an unfortunate call from Patti, our realtor, basically telling us that things were not looking good. (too many details to include)

5. We took the children to the Family Fun Fair Awana Kickoff event at our church. WHAT A FUN NIGHT!!! It was fantastic! The children had an amazing time. (why didn't I take pictures?)

6. Saturday - I started looking at listings again, just in case our other house falls through. Rich and I went out looking at a few of them - nothing exciting to report, though.

7. I kept looking online.

8. I found a couple of new and intriguing properties.

9. We decided to go look at them - and they just happened to be having an open house at the time, so we were able to go inside!! We fell in love with one of them.

10. We called Patti and told her about it.

11. We decided to terminate our contract on the other house - we were in a situation where we could terminate at any point before the bank gave approval. We have already been waiting almost 2 months. The drama was about to kill us!

12. We have pretty much decided to make an offer on the house we loved.

13. I usually do all my blogging on the weekend and schedule them to appear each weekday morning at 6 AM. I didn't do a single blog entry this weekend.

14. I feel way too distracted to do school this week . . . but I press on.

15. I absolutely love that whenever I check my blog early in the morning ... if there happens to be a comment ... it's always from Pam. It makes me smile!

Rosalie at play

I love my hat!

This is what I do instead of playing with the water table!


I love having my picture taken!

Rosalie's Water Table

I'd love to take a picture of Rosalie at her water table ... but in order to do that she'd actually have to play with it.

I exaggerate ... she plays with it a little. But these two boys LOVE it. They play with it alot!